PD ISO IEC TR 29181 — Future Network Problem Statement and Requirements Technical Reports

🌐 PD ISO IEC TR 29181 is the UK implementation, published by BSI, of the ISO/IEC TR 29181 series of technical reports, prepared by UK Technical Committee IST/6 (Data communications) and focused on the problem statement and requirements of the Future Network (FN). The three parts in this batch are: Part 2, naming and addressing; Part 4, mobility; and Part 5, security. Each addresses one of the three most central challenges in future network architecture design — identifier/locator separation, mobility management, and security protection — providing problem statements and requirements that are important references for network architecture research, next-generation network design, and standardisation.

1. Series Overview 📌

The ISO/IEC TR 29181 series is a Future Network research document led by ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 6 (Telecommunications and information exchange between systems). It systematically states the problems of the future network relative to the current network and gives corresponding requirements, laying the foundation for future network standardisation. BSI adopts them as “PD ISO/IEC TR 29181-xxx”.

In this batch, Part 2 focuses on naming and addressing mechanisms, Part 4 focuses on mobility management, and Part 5 focuses on security architecture and mechanisms. Together they outline the requirements framework for “how to identify and locate”, “how to support mobility”, and “how to ensure security” in the future network.

2. Series Structure and Part Highlights 📋

All three parts are classified under ICS 35.100.30 (Network layer) and handled by the same UK technical committee IST/6. Parts 2 and 5 were published in 2014 and Part 4 in 2013, forming a serialised set of future network problem statements.

3. Key Technical Requirements 🔧

1. Naming and Addressing (Part 2)

The current network couples a “name” (e.g., a domain name) with an “address” (e.g., an IP address), which serves as both identifier and locator, leading to difficulties in mobility, multi-homing, and content addressing. Part 2 systematically analyses naming and addressing problems, mainly including:

• Problem statement: problems of naming and addressing (NAS) in network operation, including identifier/locator coupling, address shortage, and routing scalability;
• NAS types: classification of naming and addressing schemes, including telecom network naming and addressing schemes and addressing modes;
• Requirements: requirements the future network naming and addressing should satisfy, such as identifier/locator separation, scalability, and support for mobility and multi-homing.

2. Mobility (Part 4)

Massive mobile devices and high-speed mobility pose severe challenges to networks. Part 4 analyses mobility issues in the future network, mainly including:

• Mobile environment: the mobile environment in FN, including different mobility types (terminal mobility, network mobility, session mobility);
• Related work: a survey of existing mobility management and related standardisation work;
• Problems and requirements: stating current network mobility problems (e.g., handover latency, signalling overhead, session continuity) and giving FN mobility requirements.

3. Security (Part 5)

Network attacks, privacy leakage, and lack of trust are problems the future network must solve. Part 5 analyses future network security issues, mainly including:

• Security environment: the security environment and security requirements of FN;
• Related work: current network security mechanisms and research work;
• Problem statement and requirements: stating current network security problems (e.g., man-in-the-middle attacks, privacy, trust models) and giving FN security requirements (e.g., end-to-end security, user-controllable trust, data privacy protection).

4. Engineering Practice Applications 🛠️

• 🔬 Architecture research: when researching identifier/locator separation (e.g., ID/Locator split), content-centric networking, named data networking, and other architectures, use this series to identify problems and requirements and avoid duplicate research.
• 📡 Mobility design: in mobile networks, vehicular networks, satellite networks, and similar designs, use Part 4 to clarify mobility requirements and optimise handover and session-continuity mechanisms.
• 🛡️ Security design: in the early design of new network protocols and architectures, use Part 5 to incorporate security requirements into design constraints and build intrinsic security mechanisms.
• 📋 Standards pre-research: when participating in future network standardisation, use this series’ problem statements and requirements as a basis for project proposals and drafts.

5. Frequently Asked Questions ❓